Furniture spring construction



June 26, 1945. w. A. KALPAKOFF I 2,379,086

FURNITURE SPRING CONSTRUCTION Filed Nov. 25, 1942 INVENTOR.

E m 15 M ATTORNEY.

Patented June 26, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FURNITURE SPRINGCONSTRUCTION William -A. Kalpakotf, Walnut Park, cane, assignor to PercySolotoy, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application November 23, 1942, Serial No. 466,564

2 Claims.

The present invention relates generally to articles of furniture, suchas chairs, settees, clavenports and the like, of a character in whichupholstery and upholstery pads overlie spring supports in either or boththe seats and backs, and more particularly to such spring supports withthe primary object of providing a simple, effective and efficientarrangement capable of being substantially entirely produced of wood asa substitute for the usual helical metal springs commonly heretoforeused.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a spring support ofthe above type which may-be completely pre-formed apart from the articleof furniture and subsequently readily and effectively anchored thereinto serve either as a seat support or aback support, or both, and inwhich a pair of rails are floatingly supported at the opposed ends ofspring members, and connected by a series of upholstery supporting slatswhich are mounted to have relatively lengthwise movement with respect toat least one of said rails.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates the preferred form of theinvention, and forms a part of this specification,

Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view through a chair frame,illustrating the practical application of the invention in connectiontherewith.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view, looking downwardly upon the seatframe, along the line 22 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of one of the ieldingly supportedfloating rails particularly showing the arrangement for the movablesupport of the adjacent ends of the upholstery supporting slats.

Referring to the above described figures, in Figs. 1 and 2 the frame ofa chair or imilar article of furniture is shown as comprising ahorizontal seat frame including front and rear cross members In and Hand side members l2 and I3, and a back frame including corner uprightsor posts 14 connected by an upper cross member l5.

This showing is merely intended to exemplify a conventional frame for anarticle of furniture of the over-stuffed type in which spring meansserve as a yielding support for the upholstery and upholstery pads.

The yielding upholstery support of the present invention, intended as asubstitute for the usual helical metal springs, essentially comprises apair of spaced parallel rails floatingly supported by connection on theouter ends of supporting spring slats whose inner ends abut one anotherand are securely anchored in the chair frame so that the spring slatsmay extend at an angle with respect to one another toward the railsfioatingly supported thereby. This arrangement of spring slatsyieldingly holds the rails from one side thereof, leaving the other sideof the rails for connection by a series of slats in parallel more orless closely spaced relation to form with the rails an upholsterysupporting surface, the latter slats being movable lengthwise thereofwith respect to at least one of the rails.

Thus, as best seen in Fig. 1 the spring supporting structure for-theseatframe, may consist of front and rear rails l6 and l l fixed on the uppercuter ends of side spring slats l8 and I9. These spring slats which aredisposed in angular relation to each other, are supported at their lowerabutting inner ends on anchor blocks 20 which may be screwed orotherwise fastened to the frame side members I2 and I3, fastening screwsbeing seen at 2|. The outer end of'spring slats I 8 and I9 may beconnected to the lower surfaces of rails I6 and ii by screws or similarfastening members 22, and may each consist of a long main leaf 23 andshorter supplemental leaves 24 and 25.

While the lower inner ends of spring slats l8 and I9 may be desirablysecured to the anchor blocks 20, it is preferable that they rest uponangular upper surfaces of such blocks and be held by overlying capblocks 26, fastening screws and the like 21 being driven down throughthe cap blocks and spring slats into the anchor blocks, as plainly seenby a comparison of Figs. 1 and 2.

To the upper surface of the front rail IS, which in practice may bespaced above, and parallel with, the front frame member H], arepreferably secured the forward ends of a series of resilient upholsterysupporting slats 28, laterally spaced in the series to form anupholstery supporting upper surface for the spring support. These slats28 are loosely confined against lateral displacement at their rear endsin connection with the rear floating rail 1! so that they may move inthe direction of their lengths relative to said rail. For thi purposethe rear end portions of the slats 28 may extend through the notches 29of a notched bar 30 secured to the rail l1 along its upper surface asbest seen by a comparison of Figs. 2 and 3. Thus each of the floatingrails l6 and I! may yield vertically independently of the other and bothmay similarly yield in unison. Likewise, lengthwise movement of thesurface slats 28 with respect to at least one of the rails permits theseslats to yield vertically without necessitating vertical yielding ofeither rail.

The spring supporting structure above described in respect to the seatframe of furniture, may be duplicated in connection with the back frameas plainly seen in Fig. 1. In this connection the floatingly supportedrails Ilia and [1a are seen respectively as upper and lower rails, withrelatively inclined supporting spring slats I811 and lila secured attheir outer ends thereto and connected attheir inner abutting ends toanchor blocks 28a by means of cap blocks 26a, The series of slats 28aforming the upholstery supporting surface of the spring support, will besecured to the upper rail Ilia and their relatively lengthwise movableconnection with the lower rail l'la may be accomplished by a notched bar30a onsaid lower rail, the same as described previously with respect tobar 30 of the seat support.

In the spring supporting structure as thus set forth, it is plain it maybe pre-formed for either seat or back frames and secured in the seat andback frames by fastening the anchor blocks in place. This materiallyreduces the cost of assembly. Also the supporting spring slats I8, l8a,l9 and 19a may be straight, flat slats so that bending, steaming andother shaping operations are avoided without detracting from the naturalresilience and comfortable yield of the spring support as a whole.

While I have illustrated and described what I now regard as thepreferred embodiment of my invention, the construction is, of course,subject to modifications without departing from the spirit and scope ofmy invention. 1, therefore, do not wish to restrict myself to theparticular form of construction illustrated and described, but desire toavail myself of,all modifications that may fall within the scope of theappended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. A spring structure for seat and back frame of furniture, comprising aframe which includes spaced cross members and parallel side members,said side members having anchor blocks secured thereto intermediatetheir length, said spring structure consisting of a pair of spacedparallel rails, a plurality of series of superposed leaves of varyinglengths mounted upon and secured to said anchor blocks, each series ofleaves being disposed on said blocks in'abutting end to end and angularrelation and cooperating to form a unitary spring structure, a cap blocksecuring said leaves upon said anchor blocks; the longest leaf of eachseries being secured to and supporting said spaced parallel rails, aseries of slats upon said rails, one end of said slats being firmlysecured to the top of one of said rails and the other end of said slatsresting freely upon and extending beyond the companion rail, and guidemeans on said companion rail and enclosing said slats near the endsthereof to space same and maintain their spaced relation during theflexing thereof.

2. A spring supporting structure for seat and back frames of furniture,including a front and a rear rail and frame sides, comprising a pair ofspaced apart, parallel rail members, a plurality of series of springmembers, the series being at opposite sides of the frame, the Springmembers in the respective series at corresponding sides of the framebeing inclined with respect to each other and having their upper, outerends securely fastened to said rails at and under the ends of thelatter, blocks intermediate the length of and secured to said framesides receiving the inner ends of the spring members, in abuttingrelation, blocks fastened to said spring members and said receivingblocks to anchor said spring members, and a series of upholsterysupporting slats in spaced relation, each being securely fastened at oneend to one of said rails upon the top thereof and each having itsopposite end freely riding on the other rail, and a bar having notchesin the lower face thereof, secured to said latter rail, the notchesforming openings in which the free riding ends of said slats aredisposed, to thus restrain said slat ends against lateral and verticaldisplacement relative to the respective rail.

WILLIAM A. KALPAKOFF.

